Dems on YouTube

Even with the added value of viewer questions by way of You-Tube, I could not bring myself to endure the debacle of another Democratic presidential debate. It’s like a deathwatch. Everybody is waiting for the fatal error, and that seems a little morbid.

Here is where things stand, just in case you were wondering. There are three legitimate leaders at this moment. Obama, Edwards and Clinton are out in front, but it is tighter than you may think.

Edwards is running well in Iowa and Obama is a hit in New Hampshire. If either, or both, should pull even a narrow upset over Senator Clinton, she will have to do some damage control. Obama is especially dangerous because he is raising large amounts of money with which to get his name and message out to voters.

It is still Hillary Clinton’s nomination to lose, but it is very early. In politics, it is useless to make predictions. One good thing that is happening is that the candidates are defining themselves and being civil about it for the most part.

The issues are a lot more important than personalities, and how they deal with issues tells us a lot about character.

(Broadcast July 26, 2007)

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Little Rock Zoo attendance up so far this year

Zoo Director, Mike Blakely, was in for a checkup Friday morning. He says that crowds are coming back to the zoo since much of the construction has ended and some new facilities are open. It’s a fine hour, and I have posted it online at my home page in the Audio “on demand:” section.

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The ominous brooding Mayor Stodola

You may find the first salvo in the propaganda war to fool Little Rock voters into giving total control of Little Rock city government over to the special interests that already call most of the shots waiting in your mailbox.

I will say that the image of a brooding Mark Stodola looking down upon the capital city skyline sure scared the daylights out of me. It is not an image for the squeamish.

If this thing passes, instead of holding down an honest job, the mayor will work full time for the local swells. The beautiful (although somewhat frightening) multi-color oversize post card fails to mention that Stodola gets a 6-figure salary out of this deal, triple the current pay for mayor.

This is a slick and expensive advertising piece, so the financial backing of wealthy special interests is obvious.

Little Rock already has a mayor elected at-large and is, to some degree, a political leader for the entire city. This town is large enough to have a full-time and accountable mayor with authority to run city government. That is how it is in most communities of this size that have a mayor-council form of government. As a matter of fact, North Little Rock has that type of organization.

The problem is the underlying hybrid manager-council arrangement in Little Rock, which includes three at large city directors. One more time, let us do the math. It costs more money to run citywide, so those individuals must raise enough to buy advertising and are more beholden to the special interests who make campaign contributions. They mayor also runs at-large. That’s four votes. Now, follow me. This is important.

There are eleven votes on the council, so it takes six to get something passed. There are two wards which would be considered affluent. Taken together with the mayor and three at-large seats, the wealthy special interests win every important vote.

The slick ad you got in the mail today never told you any of this, did it? They also did not tell you that, under this proposed reorganization, the mayor can hire and fire the city manager and city attorney. (Yes, we keep those high paying positions even though the mayor becomes a six-figure executive.) With six votes always in his back pocket, the mayor will attain absolute control over city hall.

As hard as it is to believe, things could actually get worse for neighborhoods and regular folks.

Little Rock needs a mayor-council form of government, and that is the very last thing the big-shots ever want you to have a chance to vote on. Passing this power grab on August 14 will ensure that a sensible type of local governance, one that treats people equally no matter of street address or socio-economic status, will not be back on the agenda for 15 years. It was in the early 1990’s when we were last lied to on this urgent piece of business.

Demand real reform in Little Rock city government. Demand a change to mayor-council. Vote “no” TWICE on August 14, and in early voting.

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Friday summary

A group of Delta politicians and advocates has called on Congress and the presidential candidates to reverse what they characterized as the Bush administration’s neglect of the region. Caucus Director Lee Powell criticized the reduction of the authority’s budget from $30 million a year when it was created under President Bill Clinton in late 2000 to $5 million a year at one point. The budget for the current year is $12 million, said Rex Nelson, the agency’s alternate federal co-chairman.

The Senate has voted to spend $3 billion to beef up border security by hiring thousands of federal agents and constructing a 700-mile border fence. The funding would pay for 23,000 full-time border patrol agents in an effort that Sen. Mark Pryor claimed would “help restore American confidence in our immigration system.”

On the eve of today’s court hearing on whether to temporarily stop the Little Rock School Board from using public money to buy out the remainder of Little Rock Superintendent Roy Brooks’ contract, Brooks has asked to be allowed to intervene. An injunction could stop him from receiving payments from the district when he departs in August.

Despite agreement on both sides that a 44-year-old Memphis school desegregation lawsuit should be dismissed, a federal judge says the request is premature and that Shelby County Schools has more work to do. In a 62-page opinion, U.S. Dist. Court Judge Bernice Donald ruled more needs to be done in areas of extracurricular activities, student assignment and faculty integration.

A citizens group will file suit today to overturn Cenral Arkansas Water’s settlement with developer Rick Ferguson that allows him to build a subdivision overlooking Lake Maumelle, Little Rock’s water supply, near the water intake.

In northeastern Arkansas, some of the cash registers are now police informants. When drugstore customers buy more than three 10-caplet boxes of 12-Hour Sudafed in a day or seven boxes within a month, the county sheriff gets an e-mail alert listing the buyer’s name, address, birth date and the amount purchased.

The name of the historically troubled Alexander Juvenile Correctional Facility, the state’s largest youth lockup, is changing beginning Tuesday to the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center.

A man who was out on parole, and has been in and out of prison since the 1990s, is charged with capital murder in the slaying last month of a Conway florist. Charles Earl Glenn Jr. also was charged with two counts of theft of property and fraudulent use of a credit card in connection with Cynthia Farmer’s death.

A Bella Vista man pleaded guilty in federal court to having sexual contact with foster children in his care and filming the encounters. Brian John Bergthold admitted to producing child pornography and transporting child pornography in Arkansas earlier this year and to producing child pornography in Oregon in 2000.

Three men have been charged by White County prosecutors after being accused of sexual activity with minors in three separate incidents. Jerry Don Foster of McRae is charged with rape after a May 28 incident at Hays Livestock Auction on Booth Road in Searcy. Daniel Gene Moss of Judsonia is charged with sexual indecency with a child in connection with some allegedly inappropriate photographs. Enrique Jimenez of Bald Knob was charged with sexual assault in the second degree on an eight-year-old girl.

A man who police say robbed a downtown Pine Bluff bank by pointing a finger under his shirt was arrested Thursday after deciding to ditch his getaway vehicle and hail a taxicab to Little Rock. Police arrested Derrick Wilson and charged him with aggravated robbery.

Ginger Shaw is appealing a 30-day jail sentence for hitting another woman in the face at a Bentonville restaurant in an apparent spell of jealousy after seeing the woman talk to her husband, who was a Rogers Police officer. Thad Shaw, then a 10-year veteran of the Rogers force, resigned after his arrest on charges of disorderly conduct and public intoxication.

Kelley’s Restaurant in Bald Knob now has a private club license. The ABC Board ruling will allow Kelley’s to serve alcohol and join four other private clubs in White County that serve alcoholic beverages in an otherwise dry county.

Jack Fleischauer, who spent more than 30 years in the banking business in Arkansas, died Thursday of metastatic melanoma. He was 58. When Fleischauer former president of the western region of Regions Financial Corp., retired earlier this year because of health complications, he oversaw more than 350 Regions branches in Arkansas.

The boardwalk project at Lake Dardanelle State Park is a reality after years of patience and dreams. The 351-foot boardwalk will allow about 55 to 60 bass boats to tie up right along the bank.

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New Audio available at lyncho.com

After several days absence, the audio archives at lyncho.com have been updated.

David Sanders was on this monring discussing presidential politics with me and also hyping his Friday evening program on AETN. David has some surprising commentary. It is refeshingly blunt. David’s TV guests are Rex Nelson and Kane Webb. It’s on at 6:30 and again Sunday at noon.

Glen Hooks from the Sierra Club has a report that purports to show that Arkansas has been getting warmer. We have a lively chat over coal fired power plants.

Sandra Wilson has new information about the changing face of the homeless. More children and elderly are being tossed on the streets. What a great county.

I plan to add Zoo director Mike Blakely tomorrow afternoon afer he appears at 9 Friday morning.

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New Arkansas media blog

You just yawned. Cut it out!

The newest blog on Arkansas media and culture is pretty darned cool, even if it does spoof me a little. Just to set the record straight, I am darned serious about the bankers, real estate interests, and powerful local swells who use Little Rock’s local government for a toy.

Secondly, I might have been a little hungry during that Wednesday Wake-Up on Channel 4. (She’s darned perceptive!)

Anyway, it’s Floaty’s Arkansas TV news and culture blog. It rocks.

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Arkansas congressmen vote on Amtrak

I cover this in more detail on my “Trains for America” blog. It is noteworthy that the Arkansas delegation is, for the most part pro-Amtrak. I have a link to the votes cast by every member of congress over there, so knock yourself out.

There is an exception, so let’s make a game out of this. Which Arkansas representative do you think is not in favor of reliable convenient ground transportation? Hmmmmm…. who could that be?

While you ponder, let’s consider the five proposals that would have crippled Amtrak’s ability to serve most of America.

The amendment offered by Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) to require Amtrak to eliminate the train with the highest loss per passenger-mile [Sunset Limited] failed on a 139-283 vote.

Bachmann (R-MN; transfer $106 million from Amtrak to homeless programs) FAILED 110-308

Flake (R-AZ; eliminate $475 million from Amtrak operations to reduce the overall cost of the bill) FAILED 94-328

Flake (R-AZ; eliminate $425 million from Amtrak Capital and debt service grants to reduce the overall cost of the bill) FAILED 104-312

Sessions (R-TX; eliminate the Sunset Limited) FAILED 139-283.

OK. Time’s up. If you guessed “John Boozman (R-Wal Mart), you win! He voted against the Bachmann proposal to transfer Amtrak funds to the homeless, so I guess John puts the homeless behind Amtrak passengers in the pecking order of worthiness. He was, otherwise, solidly anti-Amtrak.

Thanks to Congressmen Snyder, Ross and Berry for supporting rail passenger service, even though current proposals can only be described as embarrassingly inadequate.

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Thursday summary

Pulaski County government is among the targets of a federal investigation of bid-rigging in a $43 millioon bond scheme that was supposed to provide cheap housing to poor people, but instead lined the pockets of various bond daddies. A Democrat-Gazette FOI request discovered a Feb. 5 IRS letter alleging that the county had “no reasonable expectation” that it would spend the money for houses.

Southwestern Electric Power Co. and some state regulatory officials are hiding key facts about a $1.4 billion coal-fired power plant planned for Hempstead County, say owners of 15,000 acres of nearby hunting land. Property owners contend consultants hired by the Public Service Commission found that the proposed plant does not adequately deal with carbon dioxide emissions and is not the most economic option.

Gov. Mike Beebe is now open to delaying the curriculum guidelines that some scholars claim shortchange Arkansas history.

Arkansas State University Chancellor Robert Potts said Wednesday that he will accept suggestions from the public for a new university mascot and hire a sports marketing firm to help with the change.

Knight Vorachith is being held in the Sebastian County jail on suspicion of first-degree murder in a Tuesday afternoon incident. Quy V. Nguyen was shot to death at the rear entrance of Wal-Mart Supercenter in Van Buren. Vorachith was arrested at the Valero across the street from Arkansas State Police headquarters after he called 911 from a pay phone outside the gas station.

Shawn Goodwin is no longer police chief for the city of Plainview.
Goodwin was arrested in Russellville for allegedly raping his then-13-year-old baby-sitter in 2006. Charges have yet to be filed in the case. Goodwin was accused of a similar crime in 2001, when his then 16-year-old baby-sitter filed a police report. Prosecutors declined to file charges in the case, although Russellville Police say the department will request the prosecuting attorney reopen that case.

The Wynne Police Department has made several arrests surrounding a fight last month at a construction site that sent several men to the hospital. Five men who work for Southern Plumbing, which is based in Wynne, and three men who work for A&K Drywall and Acoustical, which is based in Pangburn, are facing charges. Injuries included broken ribs, lost teeth, a broken jaw, and one gentleman was struck by an automobile in the course of this altercation.

Rich’s Package Story is open. It is the first Marion County liquor store in 60 years.

American Railcar Industries broke ground in Marmaduke on Wednesday on the latest part of the company’s expansion in northeast Arkansas that state officials say will create over 300 jobs.

Central Arkansas officials have approved a new route for the remainder of the North Belt Freeway, ending more than a decade of turmoil. The voice vote,paves the way for state highway officials to design the freeway, secure federal approval for it and, sometime next year, finally begin acquiring rights of way. Plans call for a 12.3-mile four-lane, divided highway from U.S. 67/167 westward to the Interstate 430/Interstate 40 interchange – a project now expected to exceed $200 million.

Acxiom Corp. ended its fiscal first quarter with a net loss of $11.5 million, behind $15.1 million in one-time expenditures associated with its pending buyout transaction with ValueAct Capital and Silver Lake. Without factoring in those expenses, Acxiom would have ended the quarter with a profit of $4.6 million, a 74 percent decrease from the company’s fiscal first quarter of 2007.

Despite lower crude oil and natural gas sales volumes, Murphy Oil Corp. reported a 16 percent increase in second-quarter earnings Wednesday.

Arkansas Best Corp. saw its earnings dip by 39% due to market conditions, which have also forced the trucking giant to revise its capital expenditures downward for the year.

A lawsuit challenging the results of a 2006 election for a justice of the peace position in Jefferson County will go to trial Thursday afternoon in circuit court. Republican Mike Burdine, who was defeated by 17 votes, filed the lawsuit. Burdine contends that approximately 300 voters received faulty ballots because of errors in the county clerk’s office that were made following the 2000 census when the districts were reapportioned.

An amended land-use plan Mayor Tab Townsell hopes will “tie the ribbon” around the city’s plans for a new airport in the Lollie Bottoms area, which still must be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, has been passed by the Conway City Council.

Voters in Helena-West Helena may have not anticipated that refinancing the regional landfill bond would wipe clean all past city debt from the books, Crews & Associates says that, when the bond is refinanced, the city should be refunded the money put into various accounts. That will be an estimated $1.2 million dollars available at the beginning of October.

Several people at a meeting in Hoxie this week took a prospectus for investors in a soybean oil and biodiesel facility being planned for Corning. Interest is growing and already 36 people have invested in the facility which, when built, will not only provide a local market for soybeans, but will extract oil, sell soybean meal and process biodiesel motor fuel.

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